1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to hands free headsets for home telephone systems, offices, and small businesses, such as hair/nail salons
2. Background Art
Headset users who are at home, at work, or in other places often have their hands busy when the phone rings. For example, users may be working with both hands in the kitchen, in the office, in a hair and nail salon, at a computer terminal or a CAD-CAM work station. Alternatively, the user in question might be a handicapped individual with a partial or complete immobility of the hands. As a result, when the phone rings, it may be very inconvenient for the user to stop their then current manual activity to push a button located on the headset or remote dial pad to answer the call, or to end the call.
Handset lifters are used in the office for remotely answering telephones. In one example of a lifter device, an arm or paddle slightly lifts the handset off the telephone cradle, to a position that allows the hook switch of the telephone to attain the off-hook position. This action is in response to an electrical signal to a motor or solenoid driving the arm. The electrical signal is in response to a button-push at the lifter or some remote device. Automatic call answering can be set on a cell phone or in a telemarketing or call center situation, but then the user can not screen out unwanted calls, like telemarketers. In addition, home automatic call answering does not have an infrastructure or market acceptance.
Thus, a need exists for a totally hands free solution for answering and ending calls, combining a hands free headset and a hands free call answering and call ending element.